Details unfold in case of starving boy allegations

Wednesday

Feb 6, 2013 at 3:15 AMFeb 7, 2013 at 4:09 PM

By Samantha Allensallen@fosters.com

DOVER — On the first day of a trial set to last for about the next three weeks, the mother of a young abused child was called as the state's first witness. She alleged both she and her son were made to do horrible things by their friend at a New Durham residence.

Answering questions from Deputy Strafford County Attorney Alysia Cassotis in a superior courtroom in Dover, the 34-year-old woman spoke plainly about the torture she said she endured, including allegedly being hit in the face for taking food she contributed to paying for in the household.

“I just never hit back,” she said, with little emotion.

Christina Thomas, 33, of 214 Birch Hill Road, New Durham, is on trial for first-degree assault, for allegedly failing to provide proper nutrition to the young male victim in this case, now 9 years old. Thomas was indicted in December 2011 and today, the child is in an open adoptive relationship with his biological mother and new family. Investigators say these acts were carried out between August 2006 and April 2010, while Thomas acted as the primary caregiver of the child.

Thomas's mother, Peggy Starr, 55, of 265 King Highway, New Durham, has also been charged in this case. She has a final pretrial conference scheduled in April, with a jury trial also set to go into effect that month, for second-degree assault on the young victim and two misdemeanor counts of endangering of a child. Starr allegedly forced the boy to stand in a snow bank on one occasion and in a freezing stream on another, both times when he was naked.

Cassotis showed two photos — one where the child at the age of 7 looked like a toddler, weighing only 23.6 pounds — and a black dog kennel was placed in the back of the room, without having time to be introduced. Cassotis alleged Thomas would lock the young developmentally disabled boy in the cage as a form of punishment in the house basement, without an opportunity to go to the bathroom, and then his mother would be forced to clean up the mess.

“You might be asking yourselves how Christina was able to fool everyone for so long,” Cassotis said. “Teachers, doctors … DCYF (the state Division of Children, Youth and Families), police — a number of people let (the boy) down in this case.”

In a near hourlong opening statement, Cassotis said Thomas was a woman who for years took several people into her home who had nowhere else to go. She lived with her husband, another man and five children of her own.

Thomas and the young victim's mother were good friends in their teenage years and after bumping into each other at a Walmart store around 2002, she invited the woman into her home. The mother didn't know until two months later she was almost five months along into her pregnancy.

Foster's is not identifying the mother or the juvenile in this case to protect the alleged victims.

Cassotis said Thomas was excited for the pregnancy, and told her friend they would raise the child together. But things took a drastic turn, Cassotis explained, when Thomas allegedly became controlling and manipulative of both mother and son, forcing the mother to exercise and lose weight, or else she would lose her right to have meals, and starving the boy as well.

Defense attorney Steve Keable argued in his opening statement the prosecutor has yet to offer a possible motive in the case, for why Thomas would be so wantonly cruel to her friend and a child she loved. The boy's biological mother has a learning disability and collected social security checks and other benefits, but Keable said if the prosecution proposes Thomas was after money in this case, she would benefit from keeping the boy alive.

“Keep in mind Peggy Starr, my client's mother, she and Tina (Thomas) are not the same person,” he said.

Investigators have revealed the young boy had lacerations on his thighs which they allege occurred when Starr would beat him with a spatula.

Within two hours of questioning the mother, where the county attorney had yet to finish her questions, the woman described scenarios where she was beaten by both Thomas and her mother, being forced to wait outside the Birch Hill Road home in New Durham until Thomas came home, not being allowed to use the household bathroom and not having access to the kitchen cupboards and refrigerator where locks were put on shortly after she moved in.

The mother said she did what she was told, when it came to disciplining her child, and the prosecution stressed that the mother herself was not admonished for what she did to the young boy, who was very young when the abuse began.

Cassotis said the boy was placed into freezing cold showers when he would “ruminate,” a disorder which caused the child to vomit 15 to 20 times a day. The prosecutor said the child went months without visiting doctors, though much of these shocking allegations came to light after the boy visited one pediatrician at Maine Medical Center.

Cassotis described graphic scenes where the boy was leashed at times, placed in his crib with Sheetrock placed over it and in one case, alleged Thomas forced him to sit at the kitchen table and eat several peanut butter sandwiches in a row until he became sick, and after vomiting, he was forced to continue.

The boy's mother said over time, her son began referring to Thomas as his mother. But if he called his biological mother by the term of endearment, both he and his mother were punished.

In this case, Cassotis says staff from the New Durham School will also be called to testify in the jury trial to explain how after the young boy was placed on an Individualized Education Program (IEP), Thomas told his paraprofessionals to punish him by taking away food. They said the boy was constantly hungry and asking for food, so much so that teachers placed a clock in front of him so he could count down to his next meal.

Cassotis' other photo showed the boy looking much healthier. She said since he was adopted by a new family, he has grown and put on weight and doesn't suffer from most of the disorders and allergies she said Thomas claimed the boy had when speaking with local teachers, doctors and authorities.

The first day of the trial concluded at 3 p.m. when Judge John M. Lewis said he had to leave. The jurors were excused and the prosecution will continue their line of questioning the boy's biological mother on Wednesday.

Following the proceeding, the mother told Foster's her son had moved past these incidents, but she knew people had to know what happened.

“People need to know things like this happen,” she said.

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